A Wonka Style Christmas
by Daddio
Summary: Christmas time comes around again and Charlie wants to get Willy a present he’ll never forget. But has trouble on his search for ‘the perfect gift’ for his best friend.
1. A Birthday Gone Wrong

**Summery: **Christmas time comes around again and Charlie wants to get Willy a present he'd never forget. But has trouble on his search for 'the perfect gift'.

**Note: **Please ignore any possible spelling mistakes or errors.

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Chapter 1

"_We'd like to thank everyone who stayed tuned, we'll be back early February and we hope you have a safe and merry Christmas and New Year-"_

Charlie switched the channel.

"_Have a splendid and wicked Xmas! We'll be back next January for more fu-, "_

Charlie bent over and switched the television off; it made a small zap and buzzing noise as it did so. He glanced over at his mother who was cooking over a hot stove, she was getting everything set for tonight, she looked over and gave her son a loving warm smile. Charlie returned with a toothless grin, presenting the small dimples on his chin and Mrs. Bucket returned to her work.

Charlie leaned over the table and grabbed his book bag, pulling it over and folding the tattered thing over his lap, opening one side of it and taking out a blue and white notebook and his blue pencil case. Charlie always loved writing stories, besides all the hustle and bustle of learning how to be a chocolatier and school, it was his hobby; his passion. It was most likely that he had gotten this little habit from his father, who was sitting opposite him reading another one of his red hard-cover books, it was either the original book he was reading last night or a new one that he had started while Charlie was out or asleep.

Charlie placed his book bag on the floor and began to work, opening the book to a new page in his book and placed the tip of his pen on the first line of the page, but nothing came and he pulled it away.

"Having some trouble, Charlie?" His father asked after he sighed and almost gave up, closing the notebook quickly.

Charlie placed his elbows on the table and rested his hands on his cheeks, trying his best to nod. "I just can't think of anything, if anything does, I don't know how to start it."

"Well." Mr. Bucket advised. "Write down your ideas and choose the best one, maybe join some of them together; you'll eventually get somewhere."

Charlie took in his father's idea, staring up at the walls before opening his notebook up again and writing down the ideas for stories, he wrote a few, joined some of them up together and somehow his creative juices started to run again and he tore the page out and placed it next to him; beginning his story and finishing the first page quicker than he thought. Once Charlie had finished the page, he stopped writing and looked back up at his father.

"Dad?" He asked generally.

Mr. Bucket looked up from his book. "Yes?"

Charlie smiled at him thankfully. "Thank you."

Charlie packed everything back in his book bag and placed it back on the hook where Willy usually placed his hat when he came to dinner, once he did that, he gave a sigh his success.

"What's it about, Charlie?" Came the raspy voice of Grandpa Joe.

"It's a surprise; I want Mr. Wonka to hear too." It had almost been a year since they moved in to the large chocolate factory and the whole Bucket family had pulled Willy in as another member of the family, an uncle or a now very close relative. There was a glimmer of hope in the way Charlie answered his Grandfather's question, and it was very easy to tell for Charlie was not a child who lied all the time to his parents and family.

"Oh, a surprise, I can't wait." He answered in the most meaningful tone possible, the propped himself further up the bed so he could get ready for dinner; Mrs. Bucket had already placed the plates out on the small bench beside the stove.

"Charlie, would you mind helping your father set the table?"

Charlie stepped around and opened the cupboard to his left, which contained bowls, plates and other kitchen utensils; he took down eight plates and placed them in the middle of the table. Mr. Bucket reached out and took the peas and placed them on the left side of the table and then the baby carrots on the right, the last was the roast that Mrs. Bucket placed between the peas and baby carrots.

Grandpa Joe helped his wife to the usual seat she sat opposite Charlie while Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina got help from Mr. Bucket. Once they were set on the table, Charlie ran over and grabbed eight glasses, pouring apple juice into each one then placing them on the table before sitting down. Once everyone was sitting down, everyone waited patiently for Willy to arrive.

They sat for a few minutes in silence, listening to the Oompa Loompas finish up work for the day and the noise of the oven which was still baking something inside it. Grandpa George opened his mouth to say something but was quickly cut off when his son glared at him.

Minutes passed and they finally gave into their stomachs, Mr. Bucket started to serve the roast and Mrs. Bucket served what was closer to her, everyone's plates were filled and they started to eat, though Charlie took slow and concerned bites as he glanced at the empty space between Grandma Josephine and Grandma Georgina; but the empty space was filled when Mrs. Bucket picked up Willy's plate and put it in the oven to let it keep warm if he just so happened to jump in late.

"I'll keep this in here if he comes." She informed as she took her seat again, she seemed to emphasize the words 'if he', which didn't help with Charlie's concern at all.

He was never late to dinner with the Buckets.

How could he of missed it?

How could he of missed his own Birthday dinner?

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**A/N: **Sorry for such a short first chapter, I promise that the others will be longer. If you like, please review, you'll be forever grateful. 


	2. Choking

**Summery: **Christmas time comes around again and Charlie wants to get Willy a present he'd never forget. But has trouble on his search for 'the perfect gift'.

**Note: **Please ignore any possible spelling mistakes or errors.

* * *

Chapter 2

Sunlight tried to pull its way through the on coming clouds of winter and the autumn feeling was soon going to slip out of people's minds.

The light flew into the small classroom where young Charlie sat reading the book he was assigned to finish for the next two weeks school that was left. Though his eyes were concentrating on the words printed out on the dusty paper, his mind was focusing on what had happened last night.

He had stumbled around the Chocolate Room for half an hour, searching for any sign of his mentor. His mother had informed Willy the night before that they had a little surprise for him the next day, and they had spent most of the Sunday they had left searching for the perfect Birthday Cake for him; but in the end eventually Mrs. Bucket had decided she'd make a butterscotch one just for him.

Charlie's thoughts had habited him to look up from his book and at the black board where his teacher was writing down instructions after you finished the last chapter needed.

1: Copy a quote from the book and write a paragraph about how it influenced the story.

2: Don doesn't like to appear in public because he feels like a stranger to the world, if you could help him, how would you make him feel safe?

Deep inside Charlie was smiling, he felt as though the second question meant something.

_Maybe he doesn't like surprises. _Charlie thought to himself as he pretended to turn the next page and continue to read. _Couldn't be. He's given me heaps of them, maybe he just plainly forgot._

Charlie still did feel slightly guilty for eating and finishing dinner while Willy wasn't there, the food in the oven had gotten cold very quickly even though his mother had put it up high enough so it wouldn't burn, and the cake was seriously burnt afterwards.

Trying to put that thought behind him, he took out his English book and started to write out the questions, his teacher spun around quickly to check everyone had gotten the idea that you could all stop reading and go on to the questions; he was quite pleased by the number of students in the grade who had already written the questions down and took two steps in Charlie's general direction. Suddenly the girl sitting in front to him put her hand up.

"Mr. Allen, when we finish this can we watch a movie, please?" She asked in a sweet voice. _Mr. Allen _bit his lip in thought, they had almost finished reading this book, but it wasn't on the school curriculum to do so.

Negative air spun around the room as everyone stopped writing and looked up at one another, exchanging looks and whispering and amongst each other. No one even glanced at Charlie, he had looked up, waiting for an answer; but that was about it, nothing more. He had always been the type of boy that never got noticed in class, he was either ignored when he had something to say or he didn't say anything at all, and sometimes this made him feel neglected. Some day he'd get his moment where people actually noticed him, but he didn't know it would come so quickly:

Charlie coughed lightly, and swallowed, then coughed louder and harder. The boy next to him shot him a glance before poking the person in front of him and asking the other boy something.

Mr. Allen opened his mouth to give the answer and everyone stopped talking and the noise immediately stopped; except for a choking noise coming from the left side of the room. He looked over to see what was wrong and almost jumped out of his skin when he saw the young brown haired boy in the middle row coughing and choking. Running quickly over to Charlie's aid, the students started talking and watching as the whole scene happened.

"Give him the Heimlich Maneuver!"

"He's just doing it for the attention."

"Take him to the Hospital!"

"He needs medical help."

Mr. Allen started to pat Charlie's back and gave him instructions, he was pretty sure by now that his lips were turning light blue. He bracing his right arm on the desk and one just under his chin, he tried to swallow, but with no avail. His teacher slowed down on patting his back and looked up.

"Sophie! Go get Ms. Hicks!" A petite Asian girl quickly got off her seat and ran out the door, her fast footsteps had attracted a crowd of older students and teachers who were also trying now to help. Once Sophie returned minutes later with Ms. Hicks, the school nurse, a bigger crowd of students and teachers ranging from kinder to grade 6 were all watching with mild curiosity.

Ms. Hicks maneuvered her way along the sea of students and teachers till she reached Charlie, she bent down to his level and started to instruct what to do.

"OK, Charlie. I want you to take a deep breath and swallow."

He leaned back and opened his mouth slowly and then clamped it shut, before swallowing; ever so slowly his lips became a rosy pink and he was able to breathe again. But got the after effects of choking and felt very dizzy.

---

Charlie's book bag swung over his right shoulder and he looked down in embarrassment, watching his feet hoping no one would notice him. Today had been the worst day of his life, he had started choking on his own saliva and it caused almost the whole school to panic. He could understand how the other kids could have been so curious, but how come the teachers didn't do anything?

"Get your Christmas decorations and presents here! Everything for the Christmas season is right here!"

Charlie stopped and looked up across the road, giving a half smile at the man who was yelling out the prices of their products at the top of his lungs, trying to attract customers. Christmas was only two weeks away, his parents had been talking about it for the last three or so weeks now and it made him more and more excited by the day.

It was a time of giving and celebrating, the only thing he'd celebrated during Christmas in the past was getting knitted sweaters his grandparents had been working on through the year, but he'd never had the food before, and never decorated a tree before with pretty colored balls and bells and tinsel; he had never given a present to anyone of his family or friends.

Though he did share most presents or items he got with his family, he had never properly given any of them a present before; he just didn't have the money to. And now Willy had to be included, so that was even more thought put in his mind, but it was final, he was going to get his family Christmas presents this year, and even if Willy 'just so happened' to not appear for Christmas as he did his Birthday; He _would_ be receiving a special gift from Charlie.

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**A/T**: Did my homework today during English class today while reading 'The cat ate my Gymsuit'. That Willy Wonka was born in the mid 60s and is around 39 years old, so you do the math. I'm trying to finish this fic either just after Xmas or after New Years, just depends on how busy and how lazy I am. Read & Review and so on etc. etc… 


	3. Building The Xmas Tree

**Summery: **Christmas time comes around again and Charlie wants to get Willy a present he'd never forget. But has trouble on his search for 'the perfect gift'.

**Note: **Please ignore any possible spelling mistakes or errors.

* * *

Chapter 3

Once Charlie returned home, he dropped his book bag on the floor and closed the door, swinging it shut. But as soon as he did, a loud thump and an '_Ouch_' came from just outside it, opening the door again; he was greeted by a taller man with a funny haircut, top hat and forest green velvet coat.

"Mr. Wonka?" Charlie asked, almost amazed by his sudden appearance. Willy didn't answer, he scurried his way inside and looked around the slightly empty shack, Grandpa Joe and Mr. Bucket seemed absent. Charlie closed the door behind him and ran over to his book bag and hung it just under where Willy had placed his hat, then raced over to ask if his mentor wanted anything to eat or drink; who simply declined and took a seat.

Mrs. Bucket popped her head out from behind the sink she was cleaning and smiled sweetly in Willy's direction, stepping up, she grabbed a tea-towel from the rack on the stove and cleaned her slightly oily hands.

"Good day, Willy." She said in an almost sing-song voice. "Good to see you're here. Is that a new coat?"

Willy pulled his arms up and looked at each one twice, and then behind him, at his legs and then up at Mrs. Bucket.

"Why yeah!" Then he started to ramble on. "I was in my room the other day, thinking to myself when I looked over at my coat rack. I had maroon, blue, red, purple, black, even khaki! But no green."

Mrs. Bucket nodded as if she were taking everything thing he said to heart, but he spoke so fast she didn't understand a word he said; then turned her attention to Charlie. "Did you have a good day at school, dear?"

Willy quickly swung his head over in Charlie's direction, listening and ready for an answer. Charlie shook his head and turned a little red in the face from what had happened earlier.

"Not really," He told them, shaking his head. "I accidentally started choking in class and it caught almost the whole schools attention."

"Are you O-Kay now, Squirt?" Willy asked in a very unusual concerned and frightened tone of voice, his latex covered hands pulled slowly onto his lap and clasped together. Charlie nodded and went to get himself a drink, what he needed right now was a cold glass of water. Once the whole thing was gulped down, Willy called him over.

Charlie calmly placed his glass in the sink and walked over to his mentor's side, waiting patiently for him to begin.

"Those advent calendars you designed." Willy told him with a large grin. "Are selling by the pound full, I also want you to have this."

Willy reached into his left pocket, eyebrows concentrating on what he was looking for. Once he found what it was looking for, he raised his index finger and pulled out a piece of paper, passing it to Charlie, who examined it carefully.

"It's the time and place I want you to be afterwards." Willy told him, tenting his fingers in an excited manner, obviously it was some surprise he wasn't going to tell now but wanted Charlie to wait for the right time, maybe something not quite finished yet. Charlie folded the paper into the pocket of his pants and thanked him for it, besides Christmas Day he had something else to look forward to. As soon as that was taken care of, Grandpa Joe and Mr. Bucket crawled through the door, plastic white bags in the hands of Grandpa Joe and a large white rectangle box lay in Mr. Bucket's arms.

Willy was dumbstruck but everyone around him seemed excited, turning around he found one of the largest smile printed on his little apprentices face. The two men placed everything they bought on the table and started sorting everything out on color and object. Willy picked up a shiny red ball with gold glitter glued on small lines spelling out the word 'Charlie'; he pulled it up to his face and examined it, sniffing it and then pulling it back again.

"What's the occasion?" He asked shyly, placing the ball back with the others and poking a long bit of silver and green tinsel.

"He's two cards short from a deck." Mumbled Grandpa George, Willy's eyebrows furrowed but pretended not to hear and continued poking the tinsel.

"Dad bought a Christmas Tree!" Charlie walked over to his father's side and watched him slowly unfold the box showing plastic white branches. "Can I help?"

"Of course, Charlie." Mr. Bucket looked up at Willy, who sank in his chair. "Willy? You want to help?"

The (at the moment) shy Chocolatier exchanged looks between Charlie, Mr. Bucket, the so called 'Christmas Tree' and the tinsel he was poking.

---

"Sooo…what do I do with these?" Willy asked, picking up a colorful ball and placing it up near his ear.

"Just thread them through the branch, like this." Charlie instructed, grabbing a ball of his own and threading it above his head. Willy watched and copied Charlie's every move, stringing the ball onto the branch. Charlie picked up three different colored balls and walked over to the other side of the tree, strung them on and came back for some more.

Willy watched before grabbing three of his own and standing up, he strung one on and it fell on the floor. He knelt down on his knees and picked it up, but stumbled the two other colorful balls in the other hand; then a thought occurred to him. He placed two balls in his left hand and the other one in his, balanced them for a while before throwing the ball in his right hand up and passing it to his left. He did this slowly, then started to speed up, before Charlie realized what he was doing and became highly interested. The rest of the family caught the end of the act once Willy threw one of the balls a little too high, it came falling down and knocked him on the top of the head, bouncing off and landing between Grandma Georgina and Grandpa George.

"I didn't know you could juggle." Charlie commented as he went to collect some silver tinsel.

"Neither did I." Willy commented back, ending with a tiny giggle.

Charlie strung the silver tinsel around from the top of the tree to the bottom, and then went to get the silver and green tinsel of which Willy was playing with earlier. But just before Charlie could start it, Willy jumped to his feel and claimed he'd do it, and strung the tinsel in the opposite direction Charlie had. Once that was taken care of, Charlie searched through the bag, but couldn't find what he was looking for.

"Where's the star?"

"We must have forgotten it." Grandpa Joe said in a raspy voice. He was about to say something when Willy asked for a pen and that piece of paper he had handed Charlie much earlier, he leaned the paper on the floor and began of mutter what he was writing:

"Remind…Mr. Wonka to…remind him to make…star for tree." Willy smiled and clicked the pen shut, handing it back to whoever had passed it to him in the first place and folding the paper and handed it to Charlie, who once again placed it in the pocket of his pants.

Both Willy and Charlie stood back and examined their work, the chocolatier clasped his hands together and grinned wildly. "I think we did a good job, didn't we?"

Charlie returned the smile and nodded, agreeing.

"It's very beautiful." Grandma Josephine smiled.

"Magnificent." Grandpa Joe said looking up and down the white tree covered in green, silver, red and purple ornaments. Mrs. Bucket nodded and picked up the coffee cup her husband had been drinking out of and placed it in the sink.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner, Willy?" Mrs. Bucket asked. Willy turned around and walked over to the door, grabbing his hat and placing it on his head then grasping his cane before opening the door.

"I'd really love to Mrs. B, but it's that time of the year again and I'm terribly busy with that horrible end-of-year paperwork." Willy tipped his hat to Mr. and Mrs. Bucket then smiled over at Charlie. "See you tomorrow, Squirt!"

Willy shut the door and made his way back to his study where piles and piles of paperwork were waiting to be written and mailed out, but as usual; someone stopped him.

"Oh and by the way Mr. Wonka," Charlie called over to him. "Happy Birthday!"

Willy stopped in his tracks, it had been his Birthday? Since when? He skidded around on the heels of his shoes and headed straight for the Bucket house again, the paperwork was going to have to wait till tomorrow; he had a dinner to makeup for.

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**A/N: **I'm trying to imagine Willy Wonka with a khaki velvet coat. But then again it's the color he wears when finds the Oompa Loompas, so I'm going to put that thought behind me. I just finished putting up the Xmas tree; three days before I normally do, and I also bought a Wonka advent calendar (Can't wait to start eating). 


	4. Chat In The Chocolate Room

**Summery: **Christmas time comes around again and Charlie wants to get Willy a present he'd never forget. But has trouble on his search for 'the perfect gift'.

**Note: **Please ignore any possible spelling mistakes or errors.

* * *

Chapter 4

Willy and Charlie sat side-by-side under the shade of a candy tree, relaxing and watching everything around them. For Willy, dinner hadn't been the best so he was constantly plucking swudge from the ground and licking it, letting the mint taste overcome the awful lamb flavor. Charlie was simply thinking over something and staring into space, sighing every once and a while; but Willy was oblivious to it and didn't ask.

Dinner had been seriously quiet that night, well to the Chocolatier it had. Grandpa George had been explaining something which had got the whole Bucket family involved though he hadn't heard any of it, only that Charlie and Grandma Josephine had frowned anytime they put their 'two cents' in and that Mr. Bucket had finished the conversation with a bold nod; some things were better left unknown.

"Charlie?" Willy asked shyly, not changing his 'spaced out' expression. "What does hypothetical mean?"

Charlie didn't answer at first, in fact, he didn't move at all. Willy bended his head over and waved his left hand over the boy's face, Charlie quickly snapped out of his trance and looked around like he'd missed out on something really important. Willy gave a smug grin at his reaction; Charlie's face was bright red.

"Having a flashback, Tomato Head?" The Chocolatier joked, leaning his head back on the candy tree behind him. Charlie shook his head in response and rubbed his cheeks gently, trying to get the color back into them.

"No no no, I was just thinking over something." Charlie simply said honestly, the color returning in his face. "What did you ask?"

"I just wanted to know what hypothetical meant. Your mum was saying it an awful lot earlier."

Charlie stopped smiling and began to stare into space once again. He knew what it meant, just not how to explain it, and for someone who couldn't say edible or improvisation properly and couldn't even utter the word parents or family; it would be pretty hard. And Willy wouldn't be one to get it quickly either, he'd most likely ask either 'why?' or 'use it in a sentence' and the sentence wouldn't make sense to him because it would have been using the word he asked what meant and he'd have to explain the sentence. Charlie was ready to explain, but Willy quickly cut him off.

"That's it! You don't know either." The Chocolatier giggled a bit. "Hard word, ha?"

Charlie was saddened a bit, but didn't say anything, he just nodded and bent his head back on the candy tree; his head hitting the top of Willy's shoulder. The duo took a long breath and held it in for five seconds before letting it go in sync, it all done at the same startled the both of them and they moved a few inches away from each other.

"Mr. Wonka."

"You know you can call me Willy."

Charlie looked up in astonishment, perplexed by his mentor's last comment. "Why?"

"I feel so old being called _Mr. Wonka_ all the time," Willy moaned. "and you're my friend, Sprout, you should be entitled to." Willy had drawn to the word 'old' and that was one thing he hated to be called, when they calmed, Charlie lifted his head in a 'know it all' fashion:

"Then can I ask you why you call me Sprout and then just before you called me Tomato Head?"

"What-" Pouted Willy. "You don't you like it; I could always call you Tomato Sauce or Soup."

Charlie pulled his hands over his mouth, snickering a little. He never objected to being called Sprout, Willy had picked it some somehow one morning rushing through the door of the Bucket house informing him that something was wrong with one of the plants that was growing right next to the house. When Charlie had found that there was actually a sprout growing, they soon found out that the plant had become a mix breed of two of the trees and now grew as a long green vine across the left side of the house. But being called anything made out of tomatoes felt a little strange for Charlie, he didn't have red hair, freckles or anything of the sort; but then again, anything the Willy Wonka did was a little strange.

"You go bright red when you blush." Willy explained. "You remind me of a tomato."

Charlie shook his head a little, keeping a small surprised yet friendly smile on his face. He really wanted to get off the tomato business, looking down at the finger tent his mentor had placed in his lap, an idea soon came to mind which might get the Chocolatier thinking.

"Mr. – Willy." Charlie had up and folded his legs, his hands cupped on his lap. "Can I try something?"

"Wah." Willy left his mouth open while watching Charlie cross his fingers, then look up and wait for him to do the same; Willy was reluctant, but shakily pulled through, copying Charlie. "Now put you thumbs down."

Charlie quickly slammed his thumbs on his crossed fingers and Willy did the same, but still with his mouth open. "What is this for?" Charlie looked over and smiled, Willy's left finger was on top.

"You use the creative side of your brain." Charlie stated.

The Chocolatier lifted his head up; like he understood everything his apprentice was talking about. Charlie looked down at his own hand, his right thumb was on top. "And I use the logic side."

"So you are good at thinking and I'm all that at the arty stuff." It was more or so a comment than a question, like he was talking to himself more than anyone around him. "This is so cool!"

Then the first idea for Willy's Christmas present came into mind. He liked all this weird science stuff like what Charlie had just shown him, like 'Magic Eye' or then books which had puzzles that had no end, all that logic/creative/mind game stuff; he was almost fascinated by it. But then again it wouldn't be the best present to give to someone who'd taken you into the warmth after being in the cold and given you a future, he needed something that he'd keep and remember, like a graduation teddy or a scrapbook.

Once Charlie was out of his thoughts, his was met by his mentor's knees and the end of a very bright glass cane, he quickly stumbled to his feet and looked up at Willy, who tipped his hat then asked:

"And don't forget about the surprise." Willy reminded him.

"And you don't forget to make the star for the tree." Willy tipped his hat again and thanked Charlie for the dinner (though it was horrible) before making his way down to the Glass Elevator.

---

The market place was filled with excessive and possessive Christmas shoppers, trying to get that last little bit of shopping done. That red toy fire truck for Timmy, another Barbie doll for Julia because the first one was eaten by the dog, a bottle of rum for Grandma and some spices for Grandpa, a new pair of socks for dad to add to his 'socks that were given on special occasions but never worn' pile and some bath soaps and shampoo for mum.

Mr. and Mrs. Bucket walked down the long isle of the local toy store, the almost empty trolley maneuvered in front of them as they examined the toys to there left. Two eight year old boys came running past pretending to play cops and robbers by shooting with little plastic guns, almost knocking Mr. Bucket over.

"Dad! Can I get this, it's not much?" A few meters away were a girl around the same age as Charlie and her father. True to what the girl had said, the item she wanted was only $2.00, yet the father declined. The girl had started moaning and crying but the father ignored her, instead grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into the electrical department and were now looking DVD players. The two Buckets exchanged worried and confused glances before continuing to go forward into the next isle where the two eight year old boys were helping there mother choose wrapping paper for some of the gifts that sat in their trolley, the two plastic guns sat right on top.

"It's very busy today." Commented Mrs. Bucket. "It's never like this any other day."

"It is Saturday." Mr. Bucket confirmed. "And everyone loves to Christmas shop during the Holiday season."

An announcement went through the P.A system, telling people that Santa Claus was in the entertainment part of the building and was taking pictures for free and almost in an instant, everyone with children at least five years of age made there way out of the toy shop and over to Santa Claus who was giving candy canes and taking pictures while asking what they wanted for Christmas.

"Charlie used to love Santa, he'd always want to go see him." Mrs. Bucket sighed at the memories of her son at the age of three sitting on the larger mans knee with a worshiping smile on his face, the same one he gave Willy every time he appeared.

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**A/T:** Sorry it took longer than I thought, I have a horrible cold and my Birthday is this Saturday so I'm getting this planned for then. Next chapter we get to find out what the surprise is and Willy makes the star for the tree, I'm almost as excited writing this as some of you are reading it, it's just too fun. 


	5. Notice From The Author

**An Important Note From Daddio.**

I'd just like to stop this fic for a few moments because I need someone to beta this fic.My best friend who did it for me isn't on enough and so the chapters are taking longer to put up.I hoped for this fic to be finished by at least the 25th, but it seems it will either finish January for (hopefully not) Febuary or March.

If someone would be so kind to, e-mail me.

**Daddio.**


	6. The Photo

**Summery: **Christmas time comes around again and Charlie wants to get Willy a present he'd never forget. But has trouble on his search for 'the perfect gift'.

**Note: **Please ignore any possible spelling mistakes or errors.

* * *

Chapter 5

It was about 5 in the morning, but it was too hard to tell in the dimly lit factory, the only knowledge of it being that time was the clock hagging above the creaky bed of the grandparents; which was dangling by a nail.

The Oompa Loompa's were still snoring away which told Charlie that it was just way to early to start the day, and it was a Sunday, so what was the point of waking so early?

Charlie rolled over to peep his still drooping eyes out the small gap in the hole of the roof at the magical Chocolate Room that lay outside, the lights were still out, and the lights only lit from 7 in the morning to 9 at night so the room looked like a Haunted Forest from his view.

Charlie yawned and rolled back over; realizing why he had woken up so early, he was gonna get his surprise today.

He kicked the sheets off himself and quickly got himself up, but fell back down once he steadied himself up. It was seriously much too early to get up, even for chocolatiers in training like himself. But he couldn't pass a surprise from the one and only Mr. Willy Wonka, his mentor, his teacher but most of all; his best friend.

Charlie was able to get himself up the second time, now that he'd been awake for so long now, he couldn't possibly go back to sleep. He kicked his shoes on and examined himself in the cracked mirror, parting his hair and running his tongue through his teeth to clean them the best he could.

_It could be anything_. He thought to himself as he creped down the ladder and to the front of his crocked house. _Maybe just another lecture, something boring, or maybe he's just trying to get me out of the house._

Charlie closed the door behind him, tightening the lock so the mysterious ivy candy couldn't grow itself into the house like it had done many times before. The time when Mr. Bucket had left the door open when going to work the first morning after Easter Break and it creeped itself into the house and all over Grandma Georgina; who looked quite a sight with all that green candy spinning itself around her small, frail body like a snake, but it was lucky that both Grandma Josephine and Grandpa Joe had woken up to the weird feeling of the creeping candy tickling their feet in the morning and had just managed to rip it off her in time to save her from the worst.

And then there was the time when Willy had been in a bad mood and had slammed the door so hard that it fell off it's hinges and they couldn't help but let the candy creep itself in, in the end, Willy had named it the 'Creeping Candy' after the mishaps that had happened with it, and it now was one of the best candies for the pranksters who wanted to prank their parents when they were going the gardening.

He looked around the quiet factory, the only noise was the soothing motions of the chocolate fountain. He watched as the warm chocolate fell from all the way at the top of the room, telling him to sleep, it didn't matter about the surprise anymore, as long as he slept to the sound of it's chocolate falling from the rooftops...

His eyes started to droop again, his excitement fell and he couldn't help but fall backwards and just have one quick rest; it wouldn't hurt now, would it?

"Charlie..."

"Charlie."

"Charlie?"

"Earth to Charlie, come in Commander Charlie."

He squinted his eyes to the burning light that now filled the room, along with the heaters blowing on his face, making the Oompa Loompas, who were hard at work, feel like they were at home.

Charlie rolled back his head and sat straight up, rubbing his sleep filled eyes and getting to his slightly limb feet who still wanted him to sleep; talking about sleep, how long had he been asleep for?

"You ready for your big surprise, Charlie-Boy?" Willy asked eagerly, leaning towards Charlie on his nerd-filled-cane and giving him a look as if to say 'I know your gonna love it'.

"Wha? What time is it?" Charlie asked through a yawn that could beat a lions any day of the week.

Willy quickly rolled up his velvet navy-blue coat and peeped quickly at his watch, then covered it again, looking straight up at Charlie.

"Seven-thirty." The pale chocolatier said quite quickly, then, with a squelch of his purple gloves, he straightened up and started on a quickly pace passed all the candy trees and over to the darkest side of the whole room; Charlie running quickly behind.

"Excuse me, Mr. Won-Willy! But where are we going?" They walked over a bridge and into the darkness where Willy suddenly came to a halt, but because of the darkness, Charlie was not able to stop himself and flew right into the back of his mentor. Willy let out a small yelp in surprise but let it pass, as he was quite used to Charlie banging into him from behind.

"Now, my Li'l Man," Willy informed him, taking out his big ring of keys and flipping through them. "This is like, one of the oldest rooms in the whole factory I haven't changed a bit-"

"Why?" Charlie asked, staring at the tall wooden door.

Willy shrugged and continued looking through his keys, but didn't give Charlie a reasonable answer.

"Ah ha! Found it!" Willy suddenly called out gleefully, examining the old key in his glove-covered hands. "Now, don't go playing hide-and-seek in here. It's dark, dingy and eerily disgusting inside and I don't want your mother getting a vendetta against me because I gave you asthma or something of the sort."

"But what room is it-?"

Charlie was once again cut off by the loud creaking of the tall mahogany door opening and he thoughts were broken by the dark abyss in front of him. Willy stepped in and switched on a light switch, but it was so heavily built by cobwebs and dust that even the light couldn't fill the whole room.

Willy moved back and quickly gentlemanly let Charlie through into the dark room first before letting himself in, locking the tall wooden mahogany door behind him.

It was so cold and quiet, and the foul stench of wet carpet filled his nose, making him sick to his stomach. He passed many tables where blueprints were made out of new candies, bottles of old hard boiled lollies which were obviously been eaten once before, some cups and mugs along with dully colored aprons which had once been as bright and loud as any other in their day. He continued down the room until he got to another part of the room, it was more brighter than the rest of the room but the light flickered on and off every few seconds while moths buzzed around it. Charlie looked down at the desk in front of his face, there, sat an old picture of some man in his early 20s, he picked it up and rubbed his fingers on it to get the dust off to get a better look of him. The man had a short yet rounded chin and messy brown hair and mutton-chops along with a small beard and mustache that made him look like an art student. He looked deeper into the dirty old picture and examined everything about the man and picture as quickly and deeply as he could, the man was wearing a tux and had someones arm draped around his shoulders, but it was too hard for Charlie to tell who it was; as the photo had been ripped in half.

_It was a brisk, cold day, but the sun still showed itself upon the beautiful day it was. A white tent was pitched up in the middle of a park, and it was packed with people wearing tuxes and beautifully made dresses of all sorts, a few children were playing tag while the adults were just generally talking to one-another._

_One young man was standing alone by the catering table, a half empty glass of champagne grasped in his hand as he took small sips now and then mainly out of bordem. He quickly moved out of the way to let an elderly woman through to the pastries but as soon as she left, he returned to his position by the table._

"_Well, look who's hiding in the shadows!" A loud voice called over some chattering girls, the man's attention went from how bored he was to the man who was heading over in his direction; a young man with messy brown hair and mutton-chops, an empty glass in his hand and an askew tie. The man trotted his way over and right next to the other man at the catering table, a wide grin on his face proved that he was kinda drunk._

"_You gonna drink that?" The drunk man asked, pointing directly at the talk empty glass in the other man's hand._

"_No," The man said quite simply, passing it to the other man. "I'm quite full anyway."_

_The man put his empty glass down on the table and drank down the champagne in one big gulp, he let out a giant sigh and smiled to himself._

"_Well, I guess it's all over now." He explained. "No more freedom, it's just gonna be Julia this and Julia that. But then again, I married her, so why should I be complaining? Anyway, besides that, an onto you." He leaned a little closer to the other man who was starting to feel a little unsure about his friend._

"_You got anything on mind?"_

"_As in?"_

"_Well, you know." He started sipping up all the remains of champagne in the glass before hitting it down on the table. "Family, ever thought of looking at something besides the candy?"_

_The pale man started to feel a little displeased, his eyebrows furrowed and he started staring at the ground._

"_Wife? Children? You know, raising a family. Don't always think that your dream job can come true, Willy-"_

"_What makes you think that?" The other man butted in quickly, looking even more furious._

"_Okay. I had a dream job, an Astronaut. But then I found that you had to be able to do all these mathematical things and go through all this training that would make me sick in a instant."_

"_So what your trying to say, is that I should give up?"_

"_Well...Yeah."  
_

"Mr. Wonka?"

Willy smiled over at his little apprentice and hurried over to his side quickly, his cane echoing on the hard cement flooring of the giant room.

"Yeah, Li'l Man?"

Charlie waited till he was close enough to give him the photo, through Willy didn't much enjoy taking it off him, as it was dusty and quite old and eaten by moths.

"I'd like to know who that man is."

Willy turned it over in his purple covered glove before he could see who the man in the photo was, once he saw who it was, he gave a quiet yelp that sounded bigger in the darkness and quickly dropped it on the ground, it flitted down and under the desk. When it was unreachable, Willy turned on his heels and quickly said to the small boy behind him:

"Just some guy I knew before I started up the factory, it was his wedding and he asked me to come; so I came."

The chocolatier then trotted off in the direction of the mahogany door, mumbling to himself, but Charlie was sure it was about the candy star. As soon as Willy was out of sight, Charlie bent down and reached under the desk, grabbing the photo and pocketing it. He then got to his feet and ran out after his mentor.

* * *

**A/N:** The first chapter of 2006! I feel so happy for me! And that flashback thing that I don't think happened to Willy, that was the dude in the photo and Wonka (actually, I think that was quite obvious). Well, read, comment and...enjoy! 


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